Filmography: Reiniger's Prince Achmed 1926

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If you ask the average person what the first feature-length animated film was, just about everyone will answer Walt Disney's "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs". But Disney's film wasn't the first animated feature by a longshot. Arguably, that honor belongs to Lotte Reiniger's "Adventures of Prince Achmed".



In 1923, Reiniger and her husband and business partner, Carl Koch began work on an ambitious project... a feature length silhouette puppet film based on "The One Thousand and One Nights". She worked with animator Bertold Bartosch and background artist Walter Ruttman for three years on the film. The paper cutouts were jointed using wires and delicately arranged on top of a lightbox, where it was photographed frame by frame. Reiniger continued to animate her distinctive silhouette films up into the mid-1970s. She passed away in 1981.

Archive volunteer, Eric Graf was perusing a local library book sale when he spotted an amazing find... a portfolio of prints from Reiniger's landmark film. Published in Berlin in the year the film was released (1926), this group of images shows just how beautiful Reiniger's work was... and how unique. Eric picked up the book for the archive and brought it by today. Thanks, Eric!

Our reader, Michael generously translated the synopsis for us...



Once upon a time there was a wizard who could control all the powers and elements of the world. One day, he made a mighty flying steed out of pure will and thought. Then he took it to the caliph's palace and asked him to let him marry his daughter in exchange for the horse. The girl refused (she thought he was ugly), so the plan was dismissed, but her brother, Achmed, got angry and insulted the wizard. So the latter set up a trap for him: He offered him to have a ride on the horse to see how fast and strong it was. But as soon as he was in the saddle, the horse flew up into the sky and far away. Achmed managed at last to make it land on an island. There he found many beautiful women asking him to be their lover, but he denied as he wanted to find their queen, who - as he had heard - was a woman of exceptional beauty.



Achmed flew over the island on the magic horse and saw a lake shimmering in the night. While he was waiting there, a bird with beautiful feathers landed nearby and changed shape before his eyes: It transformed into Paribanu, the queen of the island, and she wanted to bathe there; around her were many gentle women. Achmed asked her to stay with him, but she was frightened and tried to flee; he, however, held on to her feathers and followed her through the thicket like the hunter follows the deer. He asked her to flee no longer and sat her onto the horse with him. Then they flew over numberless countries, until at last they found a lonely valley, where Achmed made a bed for her under a tree.

But in the meantime, the wizard was not idle, searching for his horse with magic webs, in which he caught the picture of the faraway valley. Then he transformed into a kangaroo, that strange jumping animal of the desert, and in the next moment he was with Achmed and Paribandu. He lured Achmed into a deep canyon, in which a horrible snake lived. While Achmed was fighting that snake, trying to save his life, the wizard kidnapped the girl and escaped with the flying horse.

In China he wanted to sell her as a slave. A very powerful emperor lived there; he had a hump-backed jester, who amused him with his pranks and his chimes. The emperor liked Paribandu and gave many sacks of treasures to the wizards for her. Big was the emperor, and fat. Beautiful he was not. When he approached Paribandu and wanted to make her his lover, she pushed him away, crying: "No, you monster!" That made the emperor angry, so he called his jester and told him: "Do with her what you want! You can kill her, but you may also take her as your wife if you want!" "Ah, marriage! We make marriage!" the hump-backed one called out and danced with joy.

Meanwhile, the wizard was flying back to the island on birds that he had made out of the sacks of gold from the emperor. On the island, Achmed was mourning the loss of his lover, but the wizard gave Achmed to those birds: They tore him away like vultures tear a corpse away. When they found a wasteland where the earth was gaping and spewing out horror, they layed him down shackled under a big rock.



To be continued...

THE PLATES


1. Achmed on the magic horse


2. At the caliph's court


3. The magic horse takes Achmed into the air with it...


4. ...so the wizard is taken prisoner


5. Achmed with Paribanu's servants


6. Paribanu flying to the forest lake in her feathery costume


7. Her nightly bath


8. Achmed following Paribanu


9. The lovers in the mountains


10. Achmed and Paribanu


11. Achmed fighting with the snake in the canyon


12. The emperor of China's jester playing the chimes


13. Paribanu is sold to the emperor


14. The emperor pressing Paribanu


15. The wizard turns the sacks of gold into birds


16. The hunchback plays the flute for Paribanu

This important film is available at Amazon... Adventures of Prince Achmed DVD

THERE'S MORE! For the second half of this article, see... Reiniger's Prince Achmed Part Two

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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